Plan of the twin early 5th c. BCE temples (A & B) and altars, with the location of the Archaic, 6th c. temple outlined in red.

The S. Omobono Project is a multi-year, international program of research aimed at investigating one of the most remarkable and least understood archaeological sites in Rome. Previous work in the area has revealed an extremely complex depositional sequence, comprising Middle and Late Bronze Age materials in secondary deposition,in situ traces of wattle and daub structures from as early as the seventh century BCE, and substantial evidence of continuous cult activity beginning in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE. The site thus offers both an important glimpse at the earliest phases of occupation at Rome in the latter half of the second millennium and an unparalleled opportunity to study the development of a major cult area in relation to the processes of urbanization and state formation from the eighth to the sixth centuries.

The site of S. Omobono is located just east of the Tiberine Island, near the heart
of modern Rome. Throughout much of early Roman history, this area (known as theForum Boarium, or ‘cattle market’) served as a nodal point for interregional networks of trade, which relied on the nearby island and on natural fords just south of it as crossing points of the Tiber. Thus, the Forum Boarium became established early on as a privileged locus of cultural contact and exchange, where Latins, Etruscans, Sabines, and other central Italian groups interacted with traders from throughout the Mediterranean.

Fortuitously uncovered during construction work in 1937, the site of S. Omobono preserves some of the earliest evidence of human activity in this important area of Rome. The limited excavations conducted in 1959, 1961-1962, 1964, 1974-1975, 1977-1979, and 1985-1986 by Italian teams have yielded tantalizing glimpses of at least seventeen distinct occupational phases, though the few and very cursory excavation reports published thus far allow only a general outline of this complex archaeological sequence.

View of the foundations of Temple A (at right) with surrounding pavements, looking south.

By the second half of the seventh century BCE, one or more wattle and daub structures had been constructed on virgin soil; unfortunately, the small stratigraphic sounding conducted in this area did not yield sufficient data to determine the extent of this earliest phase of occupation or the exact nature of its associated activities. The late seventh and early sixth centuries saw the construction of a sturdier structure with a terracotta roof, whose religious nature is suggested by its association with a sacrificial pit and by a possible dedicatory inscription in Etruscan (the oldest attested Etruscan epigraph in Rome). In the second quarter of the sixth century, this building appears to have been replaced by a more permanent temple, which featured a sacrificial altar connected to a well and an early form of the high podium characteristic of later Italic temple architecture. This phase has also yielded an important inscription – the Etruscan personal name araz silqetenas spurianas, carved on the back of an ivory tessera hospitalis (a token of guest-friendship between aristocratic families from different cities).

The end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries BCE witnessed a substantial reorganization of the site. The ‘archaic temple’ was dismantled and replaced by twin temples dedicated to the goddesses Fortuna and Mater Matuta. The fill underlying the earliest phase of the twin temples yielded several fragments of pottery dating from the sixteenth to the twelfth centuries BCE, which constitute some of the earliest evidence for human presence on the site of Rome. After the construction of the twin temples, the ‘sacred area’ was embellished and reconstructed down to the second century CE, though its basic layout seems to have remained relatively unchanged. Finally, beginning in the sixth century CE the area came to be used as a Christian cult site; structural remains from this period suggest the presence of an early church building, which was repeatedly restored in subsequent centuries and dedicated to Ss. Omobono and Antonio in 1575 CE.